The Halloween Collection

The Halloween Collection

Halloween dates back thousands of years to the Celtic people of ancient Europe, who recognized October 31 as the last day of autumn and had festivals to celebrate. This was the time that the regular world and spirit world were thought to be closest, so people wore masks and costumes to fend off roaming ghosts. Over time, the holiday evolved into a secular and community-based event known for activities like trick-or-treating and bobbing for apples that we love today. Halloween is a time to celebrate superstition and changing seasons, and this collection aims to do just that. Make slime, use math to share candy, study zombie brains, and explore the concept of fear with these videos and lesson plans for PreK-12.

In these Halloween segments from Sid the Science Kid, kids learn that bats are helpful creatures that catch mosquitoes, spiders are expert web builders, and cats have fantastic leaping abilities. They also learn that skeletons help hold up our bodies, and slime can be a solid or a liquid depending on its composition.

It is important for early learners to remember that there is always a sensible explanation for things that appear scary. Use this Thomas & Friends lesson to help early learners realize when their imagination might be causing this fear, and a strategy to help them reduce their worries.

In this video segment from Cyberchase, Buzz, Delete, and Harold are trying to share 18 pieces of candy equally among themselves. Jackie helps them by demonstrating how to divide the candies equally by distributing the candies in rounds.

In this video segment from Cyberchase, the CyberSquad has three of Wicked’s brooms. They try to determine which one is the fastest by having a race. Racing against each other doesn’t give them the exact results they need, so they decide to race one at a time against the clock to see which broom travels the farthest.

This lesson from PBS NewsHour Presents: The Zombie Autopsies introduces students to neurons and neurotransmission through multi-media and active learning games. This lesson was inspired by The Zombie Autopsies by Dr. Steven Schlozman.

Shows like The Walking Dead are full of hungry, mindless, surprisingly fleet-footed armies of brain-eating zombies. Could they actually exist? Are zombies real? Well, maybe if you’re talking about zom-bees! This week I introduce you to some of nature’s strangest mind-controlling parasites, who make zombies of the natural world. This one will make your brain tingle.

I'm scared of spiders. I'm not afraid to admit it. I love them in a scientific sense, or from a "let me look at you from way over here" sense, but that's as close as I get. Here's a look at the science of why some of us are afraid of spiders, snakes, roaches, and other creepy crawlies. Did I evolve to be this way, or did I learn to be afraid of them? It seems to be an open question…

Dermestid Beetles are fast and fastidious eaters. They can pick a carcass clean in just days leaving even the most delicate bone structures intact. This makes them the perfect tool for museum scientists—if you keep them far, far away from valuable collections.

In the devoutly Puritan colony of Salem, Massachusetts during the mid to late 1600s, anxiety and mistrust led to a wave of hysteria when a group of adolescent girls accused members of the colony of witchcraft. Learn more about the dark history of the Salem Witch Trials with this clip from season 3 of Genealogy Roadshow.

In this self-paced lesson, students explore how Shakespeare uses supernatural elements in Macbeth. The lesson begins with an exploration of beliefs about the supernatural and witchcraft in Shakespeare’s time as presented in a segment from Shakespeare Uncovered. Students turn to the text of Macbeth and analyze the action, imagery, characterization, and language of Act I, Scene iii (the scene in which Macbeth and Banquo first encounter the witches and hear their predictions). Then, students view another segment from Shakespeare Uncovered and explore key questions about the role of the witches in the action of Macbeth. Finally, they examine other supernatural episodes in the play and produce a paper exploring the impact and meaning of one of these episodes. This lesson is best used after a reading of Macbeth.